All-Time Greatest College Basketball Tournament: We've got the tournament and TV show to end the debate - which is the greatest college basketball team of all-time? On Wednesday, March 29 from 8-11 p.m. ET, ESPN Classic will unveil a bracket of 64 of the greatest college basketball teams to ever take the court. During the show, SportsNation will have a chance to vote on each matchup, with the results presented during the three-hour show. The voting continues with each round until a final champion is crowned. So tune in and help pick the greatest college basketball team of all-time!
1996 Kentucky Wildcats
The Wildcats won their first national championship in 18 years and first under head coach Rick Pitino. Senior guard Tony Delk tied a championship record with seven threes and led a balanced Kentucky attack to a 76-67 victory over Syracuse. Delk, who scored 24 points in the title game, became the fifth Kentucky player to be named most outstanding player of the Final Four, as the Wildcats finished the year 34-2.
The only blemishes on Kentucky's season came in losses against Massachusetts in the second game of the season and against Mississippi State in the championship game of the SEC tournament. The loss to Massachusetts was avenged with a seven-point victory in the national semifinal, a game that was widely viewed as the battle between the consensus top two teams in the country. After the November loss to UMass, Kentucky strung together 27 straight wins, running through the SEC schedule with a perfect 16-0 mark.
Delk, who was named SEC Player of the Year, led the Wildcats in scoring with 17.8 ppg. His 93 3-pointers is fourth on the all-time Kentucky list for a single season. By the time the season ended, he was Kentucky's all-time leading 3-point shooter with 283 made. But Delk had some help in the form of freshman Ron Mercer, who was named to the SEC All-Freshman team, averaging 8.0 ppg. His 20 points in the national championship game was second-highest on the team.
Kentucky averaged 91.4 ppg, but the true explosiveness of this team was best displayed when they played LSU on January 16. The Wildcats responded with a school-record 86 points in the first half to win 129-97.
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